Performers
Sheila Donohue
Performance Poet and Communication Arts Developer Sheila Donohue is the Founder of Center Portion, a performance installation space, located in Chicago, IL. Sheila's poetry and chararcter monologues have been seen by audiences at The Steppenwolf Theater, The Rhinoceros Theatre Fest, Ravinia, The Green Mill Lounge, The Chicago Cultural Center and on Oprah! She is a 4 time National Poetry Slam Champion. Center Portion is a place where unique performance and installations are staged. It was designed by Sheila Donohue and born from the vision of writers who present their own work and for individual musicians who value the intimate listening experience.
Dawn Galtieri of the The Arts Alliance.org says, "If you get invited to Center Portion, you'll see something original and inspiring." As an activist for the arts and the power of the word, Sheila Donohue's efforts were cited in a study conducted by the City of Chicago demonstrating that small art spaces encourage community. Any donations received by Center Portion are used for direct support of the artists who present their works. Recently featured in the Chicago Tribune, the work Sheila is doing at Center Portion is a natural extension of her role as President of On Track Visual Communications, where she helps organizations and business write their story.
For the October preview Sheila coauthored Angels at the Edges, the new performance piece commissioned by the Women’s Art Series Connective. As a performance poet, she plays a key role in this multidisciplinary piece that weaves stories of loss and revelation by using story, song, dance and poetry.
Visit Center Portion's Web site.
Anne Hills
There are few artists who have the full range of musical gifts possessed by singer and songwriter Anne Hills, and fewer still who have worked so hard and so successfully to hone those gifts. She has been the recipient of numerous honors including the Wold Folk Music Association's 2002 Kate Wolf Memorial Award. The Kerrville Music Foundation named her their 1997 Outstanding Female Vocalist of the Year, and her duet children’s recording, Never Grow Up, released in 1998 with Cindy Mangsen on Flying Fish Records, was chosen for the coveted 1998 Parents’ Choice Award. The regular appearance of her solo recordings on “best of” lists around the country, and the demand for her at festivals, concerts and seminars on songwriting, prove that Anne’s star is shining as brightly today as ever.
The new millennium found her an award-winning poet (Atlanta Review), and she began work as lyricist for jazz-artist Peter Erskine. (Their collaborative works were performed by choirs from around the world at a Hilliard Ensemble workshop in Germany.) In 2001, she has reunited with long-time friend Tom Paxton to release Under American Skies on Appleseed Recordings, and they continue occasional duo touring throughout the U.S. and England. In the spring of 2003 she and bandmates Michael Smith, Steve Gillette, and Cindy Mangsen released their self-titled quartet debut, Appleseed Recordings’ Fourtold. That same summer she participated in the final Pete Seeger compilation Seeds, and her lyrical work expanded into the UK folk scene, co-writing two tunes (including the title cut) with Bill Jones for her Two Year Winter (on Compass Records).
Anne has taken time to do occasional theater projects such as Quilters (Buffalo's Studio Arena and Chicago's Northlight, 1985-86), The Courtship of Carl Sandburg with Bob Gibson (in 1984 at Chicago's Apollo and Northlight and Lansing's Boarshead) and co-writing the music with Jay Ansill for, as well as performing in, Lovers (Philadelphia's Arden Theater 1995).
At WASC's October preview show Anne will perform excerpts of her latest project "Beauty Attends: The Heartsongs of Opal Whiteley". It will introduce children and their parents to the unusual nature writing of Opal Whiteley. The CD includes 13 passages from Opal Whiteley's childhood nature diaries, set to music by the incomparable Michael Smith, with beautiful arrangements by co-producer Scott Pettito. Songs include: "Blue Hills," "I Went to Look for the Fairies," "Potatoes," "Brown Leaves," "Glad for the Spring," and "She is Dead.," among others.Visit Anne's Web site. Buy her CDs by clicking the link.
Jamie O'Reilly
Jamie O'Reilly, producer of Imperfect Balance will perform excerpts from Songs of the Kerry Madwoman, on October 14 at 8PM and Sunday October 15 at 3pm, as part of WASC's October 15 at 3pm, Imperfect Balance preview program at Center Portion. This new song cycle for voice and chamber ensemble is also a compact disc of the same name. Musical performances borrow from - and are influenced by--medieval, folk, art song and ethnic/Irish forms. Jamie is the featured vocalist. Also appearing are Bob Weber on cello, and Peter Swenson-- who wrote the woodwind parts, and plays guitar and various lutes.
The song cycle from which Jamie will draw features Patricia Monaghan's highly specialized Celtic poetry, acting as the lyrics, with Michael Smith's original music. It tells the story of the 7th century Irish myth of Mis (Mish) the Madwoman in the time of the great Chieftains in ancient Ireland. Mis witnesses the murder of her father in battle. Blocked by the trauma of what she's seen, she takes to the woods--caught in the wilds of nature, and suffering what is now known to be post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or what the Irish call "soldier's heart." In time, in the echo of the dream, Mis hears the forgotten music of her past --which triggers her memory, as she first relives the brutal death of her father, then curses the 'kin-killers' responsible, feeling deep anguish. At the story's end, a Harper from her past appears. Mis sings an ode of love to him as the music, as the music mists through her. 
Author Patricia Monaghan, the daughter of a Purple Heart Korean War Veteran, wrote this beautiful poetry in response to the American invasion of Iraq. It is published in her book Homefront, published in Word Tech Press, 2005.
The compact disc features 13 new "Madwoman" songs, and the Irish ballad The Foggy Dew. It is available at CD baby.
Visit Jamie's Web site.
Monica Kass Rogers
Monica, an award-winning national business journalist and freelance writer for the Chicago Tribune, has coauthored Angels at the Edges, the new performance piece commissioned by the Women’s Art Series Connective for the October preview. She plays a crucial role as one of the performers in this multidisciplinary piece that weaves stories of loss and revelation by using poetry, story, song, and dance. Her eithteen-year-old daughter Emily will perform Angels dance act. Monica currently writes frequent features as a freelancer for several sections of the Chicago Tribune and has been a feature writer and food critic for Chicago Social Magazine and the Naperville Sun. An avid children's literature buff, Monica loves good stories, "telling them, hearing them, writing them, reading them" a passion she shares with both Emily and her husband Todd and their three other children, Ethan, Noah and Charlie. While her book arts have largely been shelved during parenting years, Monica is currently re-establishing her letterpress workshop at her home in Evanston.
Emily Ariel Rogers
Emily Ariel Rogers, 18, has danced since she could walk, finding movement her most natural form of expression. Emily's public debut was as a little tree angel in the Joffrey Ballet's Nutcracker. She trained at the Ruth Page Foundation School of Dance with Larry Long and Dolores Lipinski for ten years, where she was a merit scholarship winner, danced in many productions including Page's classic Christmas Nutcracker and developed skills in character, jazz and classic ballet dancing. She performed as a member of the Civic Ballet of Chicago for five years and is now a freshman dance major at Columbia College Chicago. Emily has also delved into theatre, performing at Evanston H.S. productions of The Foreigner, YAMO, The Crucible, and with the Northshore YMCA's 2006 Brillianteen cast as Lola in Damn Yankees.
June Shellene
June is an accomplished singer, songwritier, composer, and teacher of piano and voice. Her songs have been performed by Chicago favorites: Judy Roberts, Hollis Resnik, McKinley Carter, and Broadway's Patti LuPone. Her compositional range, nuanced singing, and poetic lyrics caught the attention of Chicago Civic Orchestra Conductor Cliff Colnot who, in 1996, produced June's first CD. The Lost Art Of Love went on to win two songwriting awards from Billboard Magazine. June's experience as a musical director has carried her from Chicago's most noted theatres to Broadway, where her music was featured in Steppenwolf's The Rise and Fall of Little Voice.
In 2004, she won a Community Arts Assistance Grant from Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs to produce Men, Women and Belonging, a live performance of songs dealing with the interplay of current cultural shifts and the man/woman relationship. In 2005 June was among the composers chosen for My Kind of Tune, a showcase of songs by Chicago writers, hosted by the Department of Cultural Affairs.
She has also served as pianist, composer, and/or Musical Director for numerous theatrical productions, including The Second City Touring Company and Steppenwolf's The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, in Chicago and on Broadway. After writing songs for Dr. Rat (Organic Theatre), she co-authored (with Richard Fire) Dealing, a play about life on the Chicago Commodities Exchange, which went on to break all box office records at Northlight Theatre, then in it's twelfth year. More recently, she adapted and arranged African songs brought to her by members of Uptown's "Lost Boys of the Sudan" community. These songs and others penned by June were featured in Scrap Mettle Soul's 2004 production, The Other Way, a collection of stories about immigrants and immigration in America.
June's voice can be heard in David Mamet's film, The House of Games, and his made-for-TV movie, The Water Engine, and she sings the lead vocal on the recently released, O Chicago, An Anthem For A Great City, penned by Chicago Shakespeare's mult-Jeff winning composer, Alaric Jans. On the CD, she is accompanied by six members of the CSO. Her piano playing is featured on Irish singer Rose Laughlin's new release, Sounvenir, produced by Dennis Cahill.
June first started performing her own songs on the Lincoln Avenue nightclub circuit. Her style is eclectic with an over-all jazz influenced pop feel, tempered by carefully crafted lyrics.
Currently, June is splitting her time between teaching and getting ready to record her second CD, which she plans to produce herself. She is one of the singer/songwriters who will preform Angels at the Edges, which she coauthored for the October preview.
The Lost Art Of Love features 11 beautiful songs and an impressive list of musicians, from Howard Levy (harmonica and piano player for Bella Fleck) to Steve Rodby (bassist for Pat Matheny), and Mark Walker (drummer for Oregon). It is available at CD baby.
Visit June's Web site.
Lisa Wagner/Still Point Theatre Collective
Still Point Theatre Collective has created a new comprehensive program that provides theatre workshops for women who are incarcerated in four facilities in and around the Chicagoland area: The Metropolitan Correctional Center, the Salvation Army halfway house, Lake County Jail, and the Dwight Correctional Center. The workshops utilize theatre games, improvision, and writing to awaken each woman's creativity.
Strong Women is a short theatrical piece, built solely around poetry written by women incarcerated at the Cook County jail. This inspiring performance explores the shock of arrival,
the experience of incarceration and abuse, seeking your spirit in the midst of adversity, separation from children, and the quest to grow as a person and eventually release long-held fears.
The piece is performed by Annalise Raziq, Kamaran-Alexis Madison, and Lisa Wagner, all current or past facilitators in the Still Point program. For more information or to schedule a performance in your community, please E-mail Still Point or call at: (773) 271-2740. Download information about Still Point by clicking the link.